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Modern building materials using reinforced concrete are considered the most popular in the production of housing in Algeria, specifically in desert areas such as the city of Ouargla, which is characterized by its hot and arid climate. These dwellings must be more adaptable to this difficult climate. An example is the Ouargla Ksar, which contains traditional dwellings that have proven their effectiveness in terms of the heat problem, as has been revealed in several previously conducted studies, but these dwellings have decreased in demand as they are not suitable for contemporary urban life. Therefore, the aim of this study is to improve the performance of the most recognized house typologies in the city of Ouargla in terms of thermal comfort and energy consumption by using passive strategies. In this regard, we used a research methodology based on field measurements and model simulations wherein we adopted TRNSYS 17 to determine the most often encountered problems. The simulated model was validated by statistical correlation; afterward, a simulation of a full year was run, during which many aspects of construction were studied and compared, such as insulation, the mass of the roof and walls, dimensions and types of windows, orientation, and solar shading. The results show that the studied modern house can be considered inappropriate for a desert climate, and the use of solar shading combined with insulated walls and roof allows for an increase of 35% in annual thermal comfort hours (−0.5 ≤ PMV ≤0.5) and for a 22.73% reduction in the energy consumption. We then compared the simulated scenarios with a traditional house characterized by a bioclimatic architectural design that we used as a reference building. The obtained results may be useful in guiding both refurbishment interventions on existing buildings and the design of new ones. Although the simulated interventions have been widely studied in the literature, it is very important to determine their impact on the perception of the indoor environment and on the energy consumption in this specific geographic area.

Phytochromes belong to a group of photoreceptor proteins containing a covalently bound biliverdin chromophore that inter-converts between two isomeric forms upon photoexcitation. The existence and stability of the photocycle products are largely determined by the protein sequence and the presence of conserved hydrogen-bonding interactions in the vicinity of the chromophore. The vibrational signatures of biliverdin, however, are often weak and obscured under more intense protein bands, limiting spectroscopic studies of its non-transient signals. In this study, we apply isotope-labeling techniques to isolate the vibrational bands from the protein-bound chromophore of the bacterial phytochrome from Deinococcus radiodurans. We elucidate the structure and ultrafast dynamics of the chromophore with 2D infra-red (IR) spectroscopy and molecular dynamics simulations. The carbonyl stretch vibrations of the pyrrole rings show the heterogeneous distribution of hydrogen-bonding structures, which exhibit distinct ultrafast relaxation dynamics. Moreover, we resolve a previously undetected 1678 cm−1 band that is strongly coupled to the A- and D-ring of biliverdin and demonstrate the presence of complex vibrational redistribution pathways between the biliverdin modes with relaxation-assisted measurements of 2D IR cross peaks. In summary, we expect 2D IR spectroscopy to be useful in explaining how point mutations in the protein sequence affect the hydrogen-bonding structure around the chromophore and consequently its ability to photoisomerize to the light-activated states.

The zipped files contain the the raw data for all the results shown in the paper in ascii format. The IR_frequencies.zip file contains the frequencies used to compute the IR spectrum. The Excel file contains one Excel sheet for Supplementary Table 2 and 3. SH_structures.zip contains the structures at the beginning, S1-to-S0 hop, and at the end of a subset of the reactive trajectories. IR_structures.zip contains the structures used to compute the IR spectrum QMMM_structures.zip contains the starting and the final structures of the 4 QM/MM MDs MM_structures.zip contains the starting and the final structures of the 10 MM MDs.

During the last decade, the problem of noise pollution has continued to increase in Europe as well as in under-developed countries. This issue is stressed in city centers, owing to the abundance of residential activities, vehicle traffic and multiple services. This study investigates the relationship between urban spatial configuration and environment soundscape in two different areas: Pisa historic center, Italy and Biskra downtown, Algeria, using the potential of Space Syntax theory in predicting noise levels distribution. For this analysis, thirty stations of measurements were held in each area during day time using a Sound Level Meter. A Noise map was modeled using the interpolation tool provided by a Geographic Information System program, while the collected data were correlated with the Angular Segment Analysis variables. The findings reveal a close relationship between the sound levels obtained and Space Syntax theory global and local indexes such as Normalized Choice and Integration, which signifies the ability of the approach in describing the sound phenomenon in different urban contexts.

Green roofs represent a growing technology that is spreading increasingly and rapidly throughout the building sector. The latest national and international regulations are promoting their application for refurbishments and new buildings to increase the energy efficiency of the building stock. In recent years, vegetative coverings have been studied to demonstrate their multiple benefits, such as the reduction of the urban heat island phenomenon and the increase in the albedo of cities. On the contrary, this study aims to verify the actual benefit of applying a green roof on a sloped cover compared with installing a highly insulated tiled roof. The EnergyPlus tool has been used to perform dynamic analyses, which has allowed to understand the behavior of two different stratigraphies in accordance with weather conditions, rain, and irrigation profiles. Results have shown that the installation of a green roof cannot always be considered the best solution for reducing building energy consumption, especially if compared with a classic highly insulated clay tile roof. In terms of summer air conditioning, the maximum saving is 0.72 kWh/m2. The presence of water in the soil has also been proven a crucial factor.

Phytochromes are photoreceptors responsible for sensing light in plants, fungi and bacteria. Their photoactivation is initiated by the photoisomerization of an embedded chromophore, which triggers a large conformational change in the structure of the entire protein. Although phytochromes have been subject of numerous studies, the photoisomerization mechanism and the following reaction path leading to the final active state remain elusive. Here, we use an integrated computational approach that combines non-adiabatic surface hopping and adiabatic ground-state molecular dynamics simulations to gain atomistic details on the photoactivation mechanism of Deinococcus radiodurans bacteriophytochrome. Our simulations show that the ps-scale photoisomerization of the chromophore proceeds through a hula-twist mechanism that forces a counterclockwise rotation of the D-ring. The initial photoproduct rapidly evolves in an early intermediate which we characterize through IR spectroscopy simulation. The early intermediate then evolves on the nanosecond-to-microsecond scale to a late intermediate, characterized by a more disordered binding pocket and a clear weakening of the aspartate-to-arginine salt bridge interaction, whose cleavage is essential to interconvert to the final active state.

Light is one of the main factors affecting the visual experience of artworks in museums and can determine the success or failure of an art exhibition. The lighting design is not yet extensively recognized as a crucial element of museum exhibitions, but recent research studies show how different lighting arrangements can create different impressions of the artworks and affect the visual experience of museum visitors. This project involved a psychophysical study of two ancient artworks, a painted panel (14th Century) and a marble sculpture (15th Century), exhibited at the National Museum of San Matteo in Pisa, Italy. Each experiment was set up with different lighting arrangements and different luminaires, with the aim of creating different lighting contrast ratios between the analysed artwork and its background. Those lighting arrangements were presented to different groups of observers in order to investigate the trends of personal preference. The results of the surveys pointed out that, on average, the observers preferred lighting arrangements that provide a certain level of contrast, while configurations with high contrast or almost no contrast were evaluated as less pleasant, less interesting and less suitable to enhance the artworks.

Alternative environments to real-life have been in recent demand in regard to lighting design and in museums. In this study, the effectiveness of the perception of the museum space in simulations or virtual-based environments is studied. Answers to a questionnaire regarding lighting in four different visual experiences are compared: Real-life, virtual-video-based, virtual-photo-based and virtual-render-based. A total of 117 participants were divided into four visual experience groups. Each group answered the same lighting related questions for four exhibition halls in the Natural History Museum of the University of Pisa (Italy), which is housed in the Monumental Charterhouse of Calci. The answers were analyzed using ANOVA and a T-test. The results show that virtual experiences can be acceptable alternatives to real-life experience as the answers were indifferent in more than half of the criteria, and no criterion was affected significantly by experience, regardless of the hall’s characteristics. However, it was found that the hall’s characteristics also had an impact on the perception of the criteria in different experiences. Controlled artificial lighting or uniformly distributed lighting (full day or artificial light) were found to be more indifferent to the experience.

Due to the increasing amount of time that people are spending indoors, the need to ensure adequate ventilation has become a priority. The confirmed airborne transmission of COVID-19 highlights the necessity to consider the effect of ventilation on the reduction of the infection risk. In naturally ventilated buildings, the ventilation rate is not easy to determine, and it is difficult to estimate the risk to implement preventive measures. This paper presents a method to estimate the infection probability from CO2 concentration monitoring, which was applied to university classrooms. The effects of people’s activity, classroom characteristics, occupancy and protective masks were also investigated. From the method, it is possible to calculate the infection probability using CO2 dataloggers that can be adopted as ‘alarm’ systems to keep the infection probability below a critical value. The method will enhance healthy conditions indoors and reduce the risk of infectious diseases in the future.

The speech intelligibility properties of classrooms greatly influence the learning process of students. Proper acoustics can promote the inclusion of foreign students and children with learning or hearing impairments. While awareness of the topic is increasing, there is still no parameter that can describe all aspects of speech transmission inside a room. This complicates the design of classrooms and requires designers to have extensive knowledge of theory and experience. In the scientific and technical literature, there is a lack of predictive tools, easy to use by designers, which can guide the choices in the early design stages in order to move towards technical solutions able to ensure adequate levels of speech intelligibility. For this reason, in this paper, the most relevant speech intelligibility parameters found in the literature were collected and discussed. Among these, the Clarity index and Speech Transmission Index were singled out as the most effective ones, whose prediction can be made with relatively simple methods. They were then analyzed through their prediction formulas, and a tool was proposed to allow an easy estimation of the minimum total equivalent sound absorption area needed in a classroom. This tool greatly simplifies the early acoustics design stage, allowing the intelligibility of speech within a classroom to be increased without requiring much theoretical effort on the part of the designers.

Salvadori, Giacomo/0000-0002-0720-2380; LECCESE, FRANCESCO/0000-0002-2256-7943; Oner, Merve/0000-0001-5551-068X, WOS: 000501954100001, This study explored the impact of daylight illuminance on cognitive load during visual display terminal use by means of various physiological, performance and subjective measures. Repeated-measures design was adopted to identify the impact of variations in daylight levels that were manipulated through the shading system configurations (shading-on; shading-off). A total of 30 subjects performed visual and cognitive demanding tests. Performance measures were supported by subjective data and eye-related measures during the experimental analysis. Results revealed that the use of a shading system had positive impact on sustained attention. Concerning ocular measures, percentage of eye closure values showed opposite tendencies among vigilance and sustained attention demanding tests. Eye aspect ratio-max and blink duration were significantly correlated with reported glare sensation. In all tests, eye aspect ratio-max was found significantly higher in lower illuminances. Search velocity was significantly correlated with ocular variables in higher illuminances whereas sustained attention showed an opposite trend. This, initially, explains that even slight differences in daylight illuminance might have distinctive effects on the relationship between different groups of assessment variables while measuring cognitive load. Secondly, it proves the significance of carrying out sensitive experiments in terms of both light levels and test characteristics.

The evaluation of Indoor Environmental Quality (IEQ) can be applied to special environments such as hospitals where it can have a great impact on both patients and workers. In this paper the authors present some results obtained in a large survey campaign in hospital settings, and in particular the results of IEQ measures in the sterilization unit are shown.

UV solar radiation can have negative effects on human skin and eyes, in particular for outdoor workers that are exposed several hours per day under the Sun. The real time monitoring of exposure dose can be an effective protection, but several criticalities exist that hinder the full development of a smart device realized for this scope.

Here we will review our current activities on the realization of photonic active structures based on biomaterials. Nanofibers of DNA incorporating light-emitting chromophores are reported with enhanced optical emission and lasing properties tailorable by the fiber size and architecture. The research leading to these results has received funding the European Research Council (ERC) under the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme (grant agreement No. 682157, “xPRINT”) and from the Italian Minister of University and Research through the PRIN 201795SBA3 project.

The authors examined the effect of external shading system on cognitive performance, alertness and visual comfort of visual display terminal (VDT) users under two realistic office lighting settings in this study. Daylight was the source of illumination being considered as the most significant and preferred one. A total of 26 participants performed visual and cognitive demanding tasks as well as providing subjective alertness, performance and visual evaluations in a full-scale mock-up VDT workstation. Two trials (with and without shading system) were executed during one experimental session. Results revealed that the use of a shading system improves the performance of a user on colour-naming task requiring sustained attention, while no differential effects were observed on tasks involving other cognitive skills such as search velocity and vigilance. Within-subject performance differences were more pronounced during morning hours. Higher performance was reported in some cognitive tests when the subjective sensation of visual discomfort was lower.

From the introduction of the “Moon Village” concept by the ESA Director General Jan Worner, the interest towards a permanent settlement on the Moon increased. International space agency and private companies started to investigate and design new solutions for permanent habitats on lunar soil. Many aspects in the design of space residences must be considered, with the awareness that human health and well-being must be at the centre of every design choice. The first aim of this paper is to outline the key aspects of two lunar habitats concepts, One Moon, developed by ESA, and MaMBA. Furthermore, the key issues related to an engineering design of the modules are discussed, with a particular attention to the thermo-energetic aspects. The issues of thermal comfort and energetic evaluation in living environments is becoming increasingly studied, with numerous reliable and tested tools for assessing ordinary places. The same can hardly be said for hostile places, where the safety and well-being of people are more difficult to provide. Therefore, a review of the main data needed for an energetic analysis of such a hostile place as the lunar planet is provided and analysed, with the intention to maximizes in-situ resource utilization.

Lighting of future cities is a very sensitive issue nowadays and involves, in a transverse way, different disciplines, stakeholders and aspects that cannot be neglected and that are crucial in the urban development and in the life of human beings. The purpose of this paper is to highlight some critical issues that characterize the urban planning of today's cities and to expose cities and citizens evolution. Beside these aspects, the authors aspire to stimulate a multidisciplinary collaboration in the lighting design of urban spaces with greater sensitivity, aimed at supporting urban trends on a human scale considering the built environment, people and nocturnal ecosystem. It is therefore intended to promote the use of light at a human scale in urban spaces, using light as a social tool that intervenes in the perception, emotions and experience of people. The authors want also to sensitize the readers on the responsible use of light outdoors, pointing out that the use of artificial light during the night, inevitably involves the introduction of an artificial element, in fact, and consequently an alteration of the ecosystem. All this will affect the human being and his behavior, safety, well-being and health, discovering new important values of artificial light in the outdoor environment.

The exposure to UV solar radiation can have several adverse health effects. During summer in Mediterranean area high UV irradiation levels occur and outdoor workers may incur in overexposure risk. This paper reviews the measurement campaigns of UV solar exposure carried out in Mediterranean area.

The thermal environment in educational buildings is crucial to improve students’ health and productivity, as they spend a considerable amount of time in classrooms. Due to the complexity of educational buildings, research performed has been heterogeneous and standards for thermal comfort are based on office studies with adults. Moreover, they rely on single dose-response models that do not account for interactions with other environmental factors, or students’ individual preferences and needs. A literature study was performed on thermal comfort in educational buildings comprising of 143 field studies, to identify all possible confounding parameters involved in thermal perception. Educational stage, climate zone, model adopted to investigate comfort, and operation mode were then selected as confounding parameters and discussed to delineate the priorities for future research. Results showed that children often present with different thermal sensations than adults, which should be considered in the design of energy-efficient and comfortable educational environments. Furthermore, the use of different models to analyse comfort can influence field studies’ outcomes and should be carefully investigated. It is concluded that future studies should focus on a more rational evaluation of thermal comfort, also considering the effect that local discomfort can have on the perception of an environment. Moreover, it is important to carefully assess possible relationships between HVAC systems, building envelope, and thermal comfort, including their effect on energy consumption. Since several studies showed that the perception of the environment does not concern thermal comfort only, but it involves the aspects of indoor air, acoustic, and visual quality, their effect on the health and performance of the students should be assessed. This paper provides a way forward for researchers, which should aim to have an integrated approach through considering the positive effects of indoor exposure while considering possible individual differences.

In the recent past, great attention has been posed on the assessment of the energy performance and of the operating and maintenance costs of the building stock. Currently, new approaches of analysis are considered by the scientific community, which put the occupant's well–being at the centre of the evaluation process. In this context, the IEQ assessment acquires an ever increasing importance, especially if the combined effects of multiple environmental factors are considered. With this purpose, to date, different weighting schemes can be found in the literature, obtained through subjective investigations and mathematical methods. In this paper, the weighting schemes proposed in the literature in the period 2002–2018 were examined, considering the survey methodologies used. The more relevant studies found in the literature were compared and the related weighting schemes were discussed, based on the intended use of the buildings. In particular, 122,000 questionnaires in 18 different countries all over the world were examined and the most relevant environmental factors were selected: Thermal Environment (TH), Air Quality (AQ), Acoustics (AC), and Lighting (LT). Three different average weighting schemes were obtained for each of the following uses: offices, schools, dwellings; a final additional weighting scheme was obtained considering the average values of the normalized weights for all the building uses, a possible solution for buildings with an unspecified or not unique intended use. Moreover, an original weighting scheme was obtained and proposed on the basis of the results of three different subjective surveys, involving about 1400 participants, carried out in some university classrooms at the School of Engineering of the University of Pisa: it was compared with the one obtained by the literature for school buildings. It was observed an overestimation of the importance of TH (0.42 instead of 0.33) and an underestimation of AC (0.19 instead of 0.26), whereas AQ and LT are in accordance (0.17 instead of 0.19 and 0.22, respectively). The results of the present study can be useful to those who intend to deal with holistic approaches to building design, for which accurate assessments of occupants’ well-being are taken into consideration as well as aspects related to energy performance and building management costs.

According to the international technical standards, higher lighting levels (luminance and illuminance levels) are expected in trafficked and central roads (where restrictive minimum lighting requirements are necessary) and lower lighting levels are expected in peripheral and less trafficked roads. Starting from this assumption, in this paper, the authors analyse the correlations between spatial properties (expressed by spatial indicators, for example, the integration index and the choice index) and lighting levels (expressed by lighting parameters, for example luminance and illuminance) upon roads of an urban context. The analysis has been applied to the case study of the medium sized town of Pontedera (central Italy). From the obtained results, it has been possible to observe how the correlations between integration index and luminance and illuminance values are significant in the case of roads equipped with lighting systems able to satisfy the lighting requirements established by the regulations. The presence of the discussed correlations lays the foundation for a change in the lighting design approach on urban scale, being able to set lighting requirements on the basis of space syntax results without the use of traditional methods of road classifications involving traffic volume estimations.

Heat stress is a typical health problem in glass industries, due to the high temperatures that can be reached in these spaces, especially close to the furnaces. For this reason, the evaluation of the conditions in these environments is particularly important. In this paper, the aim is to assess the workers' exposure in an Italian glass industry to the severe environment present in the furnace area, through the use of the WBGT index. Furthermore, the maximum time that they can spend in the industry warm area was also evaluated for different types of clothing and of metabolic rates, in order to reduce the health risk that may occur.

Ensuring thermal comfort in educational buildings is nowadays essential for improving health and performance of the students. For the determination of thermal comfort, two main approaches are usually applied: the heat-balance and the adaptive approach. These two approaches have been adopted by standards, but it lacks a specific standard focused on educational buildings, which may present particular conditions. Furthermore, providing a methodology for the analysis of environmental conditions in educational buildings is also fundamental. This paper investigates the main standards for the evaluation of thermal comfort, considering the two different approaches for the assessment of thermal comfort. Then, it analyses the methodology that should be applied in educational buildings for the determination of the environmental conditions. Finally, it provides an overview of the existing field studies, investigates the current problems encountered and highlights the future research that should be carried out in educational buildings.

Street lighting plays a crucial role in a city’s night landscape and in urban traffic management, influencing users’ comfort and safety. To contain costs of public street lighting systems and to avoid energy waste, illuminance levels on road surfaces must be adequate to fit actual traffic volumes, as prescribed by regulations. This is true not only for motorized roads but also for sidewalks, paths, and pedestrian areas. Regulations in force establish a relationship between road traffic volumes and minimum illuminance levels through the lighting classes selection procedure. Lighting classes selection is based on various para meters among which traffic volume is the most difficult to evaluate because traffic volumes are generally estimated or measured by a traffic observation campaign. In this paper, an alternative method for classes association which is based on a space syntax approach, is described. The method was applied to the case study town of Pontedera (Italy) for the analysis of the pedestrian and motorized traffic and it shows a good correlation between measured and estimated traffic volumes, demonstrating how the methodology, with a precise and quick estimation of traffic volumes, can help lead to a suitable design of the lighting infrastructure, aiming to reduce energy waste and to avoid oversized lighting systems.